Thursday, March 31, 2016

Walt got that section of the fence completed. Just one more section to go.

It was predicted to start snowing at midnight until noon the next day -- 1-3 inches. I took a photo of the green lawn and the daffodils in bloom.

And here's the clean driveway.

March 29, 2016 - Tuesday

The weather man was right--it did snow.

The car and driveway were covered in the fluffy white stuff. I needed to hurry to get a photo because our great neighbor, Steve Ormond, usually gets our driveway shoveled right a way when it snows.

When Steve finishes, we didn't feel "snowed in" anymore.

The weatherman was wrong about it just snowing till noon on Tuesday. It didn't stop till that night. Our friends, Steve and Susan Tuft, on the other side of town said they got 13 inches of snow. We may have been 10 inches or more.

We did not go outside...except to take photos from the porch.

March 30, 2016 - Wednesday

The temperature did not go below freezing, so the roads were clear to drive to Twin Falls to rendezvous with Dale and Connie for our Wednesday temple session. Walt and I had names to do from the 1700's that Kathleen Hedberg had done the research for in Sweden. We hope her ancestors are happy to be able to progress now in heaven.

It was Connie's turn to choose the restaurant. We always love to eat at Maxie's Tomato's. They have excellent lasagna there that compares with the best lasagana I had ever had--which was at the National Museum's bistro in San Salvador, El Salvador.

March 31, 2016 - Thursday

Today, even though the temperature in the high 50's has a lot of the snow melting, our yard is still covered in white.

A limb from the pine tree by the trampoline was twisted by the extra heavy, wet snow and will have to be cut off.

We took some shamrock cookies to four of our neighbors today...Jean Neibaur, Steve & Sherry Ormond, Tom & Irene Blayney, and Ruth Melling. It is the last day of March.

Kathleen Hedberg comes each Friday morning to help us with family history on the familysearch.org website. She has Walt's Swedish line back to 1714 for his Grandmother Katie Olson Petersen.

I work on familysearch.org, currently adding photos to our family lines of Petersen, Prescott, Albertson, and Huffaker.

I calmly said to Kathleen: "We're moving to Salt Lake."

She got this startled look, then I added: "Next month."

She was looking really sad, so I quickly said: "April Fool."

Walt went out to work on the fence. You can see how much he snow has melted.

next The Blayney's tulips are already blooming. Irene said she planted them 19 years ago. She also said Don would have been over to tell them their tulips were beautiful. We all miss our neighbor, Don Melling. It's almost eight months since he passed away on August 4, 2015.

Friday, March 25, 2016

This afternoon Walt gouged his arm while working on the fence. "It's just a little scratch," he said to me when I saw it.

Tonight was our Neighborhood Empty Nesters' monthly Family Home Evening. Gary and Colleen McCall served delicious shrimp with wild rice and are always very gracious hosts. They cooked almost 60 shrimp and had these four left.

The tulips added a colorful touch of Spring.

Other yummy additions were brought by...

Tossed salad - Ormonds

Vegetable salad - Fronks

Hot, homemade rolls - Petersens

Homemade brownies with ice cream - Dan Black. The group photo that I thought I took, didn't turn out so Bonnie Fronk, below left, is not in the group photo. Luckily I got this photo with Bonnie helping Colleen and Sherry dishing up and serving dessert.

For the lesson, the McCalls had "Twelve Resurrection Eggs" hidden in the living room. When they were all found, each one read the scripture inside the plastic egg and showed the item with it.

Colleen made these with the primary girls for her March Activity Day. However, the 12th egg is just empty, to represent the empty tomb from which Christ had Risen.

This was a wonderful way to focus our thoughts about the Savior and His Atonement for us. Here are Gary and Dan. Gary has just read his scripture and we are discussing it.

Each of the twelve scriptures were chosen that discussed what the Savior went through during his last day of life on this earth. Ken and Bonnie Fronk always have insightful comments to add to our discussions.

We felt a great spirit and shared tears thinking about this great gift Jesus Christ, our Savior and Redeemer, has given to each one of us.

Three of the couples--Scott and G'lenn, David and Marilyn, Ken and Bonnie Hansen--had to be out of town, and with two of our couples serving missions--Gortons and Roskelleys--we had four couples and one widower.

Front left to right: Eileen, Walt, and Dan.

Back: Ken, Colleen, Gary, Sherry, and Steve.

We enjoy being together. The McCalls always make us feel so welcome in their beautiful home. It was a chilly day and was nice to be greeted by the friendly, roaring fire as we entered. Thank you, Gary and Colleen, for a delicious dinner and inspirational lesson.Here are The Ormonds, sitting by the fire place. Many of the beautiful paintings in the McCalls home were painted by Colleen's mother, June Carey.

March 22, 2016 - Tuesday

We have hope that Spring--which "officially" arrived on Sunday, March 20th, may be here to stay. Anyway, the daffodils are blooming along our front porch.

March 23, 2016 - Wednesday

We rendezvoused at the temple with Dale and Connie. The wind was so strong that it blew everyone's clothes and hair out of place. Connie said I couldn't put this photo of her on the blog, so if I make it "extra-large" I think it will cut her out of the photo.

Here are Walt and me. The weather forecast was "wind gusts up to 40 or 50 mph."

It was Walt's turn to choose the restaurant. He chose Idaho Joe's. We love our day each Wednesday with Dale and Connie. It is a great tradition to be at the temple together, then have supper with each other.

nnn This photo of the full moon tonight shows why Easter is in March this year. In looking up how the date of Easter is chosen, I learned this. By next Easter I will have forgotten again what determines the date of Easter each year. Easter always happens on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Equinox. Last Sunday, March 20th, was the Equinox (first day of Spring), tonight March 23rd is a full moon, so Sunday, March 27th is Easter. If you look closely you can see the full moon between the branches of the Elm tree in our backyard taken at 10:44 p.m.

March 24, 2016 - Thursday

Happy Birthday, Brian.

We went to the viewing of our friend, Gale Gillett. Two of Gale and Jolene's daughters--Tanya and Janet--were nurses for Walt.

We thought this was a wonderful family photo taken at the Snake River.

Gale's brother, Ted, was Walt's best man. We have always loved Ted's darling wife, Sharon.And Ted, along with another brother, Dan, were at the University of Idaho with Walt.

The last time we saw Ted and Sharon was in March 2005 when we were in the MTC the same week before they went on a French-speaking mission to Tahiti, and we went to a Spanish-speaking medical mission to Central America--living in Guatemala.

We also saw our friends Charles and Reneé Clark. We haven't seen them for years!

March 25, 2016 - Friday

We went to Gale Gillett's funeral in Declo.

He had been chief of the Fire Department in Declo. We thought it was very fitting that they brought the Declo Fire Engine to help escort the cortage to the Declo Cemetery.

We drove past the home on the Main Street of Declo that Gale's parents, Joe and Maida had lived.

Then we headed to Idaho Falls to see our Fisher grandchildren compete in the Gem State Classic Ballroom dance competitions that Shawn and Janie Fisher began several years ago.

It keeps getting bigger each year. For 2016 they had 1,400 dancers come from Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, and Oregon. They had 44 cabaret couples this year, so had to have some of them dance Thursday evening. The event was just scheduled for Friday and Saturday.

Next year they are going to three full days.

Shawn and Janie took time out of their busy schedule to see that we got to the Idaho Falls High School okay, got parked, and had special soft chairs set up for us to sit on instead of the hard bleachers.

This afternoon we got to see the Ballroom Team Formations for the Idaho Ballroom Academy that Janie & Shawn started shortly after Shawn was chosen to be over the Ballroom Dance Department at Ricks College in 1995.

Two of their children--Sam, 17, and Ashley, 15-are on these teams.Here's Ashley performing on one of her IBA team formations.

And here's Sam on one of his IBA teams. (He is looking to the side, smiling.)

Janie, helped to hand out awards. I think she told me there were 124 formation teams competing. Here the mayor of Idaho Falls -- in the green outfit -- is welcoming everyone and thanking them for choosing to come to Idaho Falls.It is spring break for the IF High School, that's why they could use this facility.

Janie, hired her friend, Mary Jones, an excellent chef, to prepare and serve the meals for the judges--who come from all over the United States.Shortly after Janie and Shawn had moved to Rexburg, she told us she had found her "kindred spirit." She and Mary have been soul mates and best friends since then.

For supper on Friday, Mary served a choice of three kinds of pasta, with marina or Alfred sauce, homemade French bread, and tossed salad with homemade or other dressings.

Dessert was individual, homemade cheesecake with either cherry or blueberry topping. And the judges were still raving about the homemade soup she had served them for lunch.

Then it was back to the competitions out on the big gymnasium which was a dancing floor instead of basketball or volleyball.

Michael Mecham is still doing a masterful job as the Master of Ceremonies and keeping everything going.

Here's Ashley and her partner sitting in front of us waiting for the time that her Ballroom formation team goes on. She is on the Ballroom team and the Latin team.

and I will finish this tomorrow

Sam--

They dance so fast...I had to delete about 20 photos that were a blur....like this one

next Ashley is gettiing tired

We made it to the end.....about midnight.

March 26, 2016 - Saturday

Thanks, Shawn, for our wonderful room at the Fairfield Marriott. They serve a yummy breakfast.

Ready to head to another day of ballroom competitions.

next Pleasant Grove, Utah

Michael Fisher, age 12, cha-cha competition.

From the main gym, we went over to the auxiliary gym where Ashley and Sam were competing in the Jr. High and High School age events.March 27, 2016 - Sunday

Happy Easter . . .

and a Holy Easter . . . "He is risen as He said." The Atonement of Jesus Christ that gives us the hope of being resurrected is the greatest miracle of all time.

About Us

Walt was born in Wendell, Idaho,and has lived in Idaho 64 of his 83 years. Eileen was born in the Twin Falls Idaho Hospital going home to Wendell from there, and have lived in Idaho for 56 of my 78 years. Married June 14, 1961 in Salt Lake Temple. We thank our children and grandchildren for the wonderful 50th Wedding Anniversary Celebration they hosted for us in June 2011. We went on a Mediterranean cruise (thanks again to our children) to celebrate our 50th--a year early to be with D. Kelly Ogden as he lectured "In the Footsteps of Paul the Apostle." We have lived in St. Louis,MO, Minneapolis,MN; Talihina,OK; Burley,IDAHO 42 years, 3 years in Merida, Mexico;2 years in Guatemala City, Guatemala; 18 mos in Argentina,Oct 2008 to Mar 2010; and 3 years as temple president and matron of the new (dedicated Aug 21, 2011) San Salvador El Salvador Temple for--July 2011 to Nov 1, 2014. We love and adore each other, our 7 children, their spouses, and our 35 grandchildren.
Walt is a physician, I was a medical secretary for PHT, then homemaker and mother.
We are staunch Republicans.